O. Henry's Two Rules of Writing

September 11, 2010

Today is O. Henry's birthday and thanks to Writers' Almanac (http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2010/09/11) I was reminded of this. He was born William Sidney Porter in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1862.

I have not been a fan of this author for some time because I was forced to read him all through my school years and television in those early years often used his stories as playhouse productions. I got tired of his stories although they were very good ones.

He had many occupations in his life including licensed pharmacist, convicted felon, shepherd, domestic servant, bank teller and baby sitter. Many of his stories were written while he sat in prison for embezzlement.

Many biographies will tell you that O. Henry was an alcoholic but they also will tell you that he was one gifted writer with hundreds of stories to his name. He died at the age of 47 from liver disease.

In 1909, he gave an autobiographical interview of himself for the New York Times. One part of it bears repeating:

"I'll give you the whole secret of short-story writing. Here it is Rule I: write stories that please yourself. There is no Rule II."

Right now I am working on a book of short stories. I have never attempted to do that before. The one thing I can attest to, is that it is no fun writing short stories that don't please oneself. In fact, it is pure drudgery when you attempt to write what is popular and salable instead of what pleases the self. Many books will tell you that you need to research the market first and then write what is selling. The stories that I have sold were ones that I did not research the market first. I just wrote what pleased me. I am not a writer like O.Henry, but if a writer is not having fun writing, what good is it to be a writer? W. Somerset Maugham in his book, "The Summing Up", called the writer the last free human being. We are. Let's have fun while we are at it and write what we want. The Hell with market research and pay attention to rule no. I.

Happy Birthday O. Henry!